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Sports injuries, persistent pain and niggling injuries are frustrating. Magic solutions are, well magical! What is valuable is patient education on the diagnosis, prognosis and a series of steps to get to goal. This results in strong health-partnerships that we form with you to realise your goals. Ask your physiotherapist questions to understand your problem and what the solutions are. This is because you are integral to the solution and when you understand the issues you are in better control with a physio who has your back!

​At your first visit you will have been asked what;

What activity or position is problematic?

What your goals are?

What is holding you back?

What your lifestyle consists of?

By the end of the examination process you should have answers to these questions.

Can you explain my condition in plain language, please?

What are the relative risks and benefits of your proposed treatment (e.g. surgery versus conservative treatment)?

How long will it take to heal, and will I make a full recovery?

The above questions will help you determine the course of action to follow guided by your physiotherapist. For example, do you simply want to be pain-free, or are you aiming to be ready for sports-specific or other specific activity? Your goals will influence the duration and intensity of your exercise schedule. You and your physiotherapist will create your ‘recovery programme’ goals.

All physiotherapists in private practice are governed by a body or association that sets and enforces guidelines to protect the public. Here in Australia it is the Australian Physiotherapy Association or APA. These guidelines cover safety issues, ethical care, privacy requirements (e.g. access to personal health records), and other aspects of the profession. Don’t hesitate to inquire about professional conduct and your patient rights throughout your treatment.​Physiotherapists will ask questions and explain the rehabilitation process as you proceed. However, voicing your own questions can help you better understand your progress and correctly perform prescribed exercises.

World oral health day is upon us this March 20th 2018. So this date means 32 adult teeth and zero cavities. As an ally to Dental care for TMD (Jaw joint and muscle problems) here at Peak MSK Physiotherapy we are promoting this date to everyone.
​32 Teeth and 0 cavities are important because missing teeth or damaged teeth can impact on jaw mechanics and therefore neck function.

We help restore normal jaw and mouth function, relieve pain and promote healing of damaged tissues with consideration of the joints, muscles and consider the whole person. We do this in cooperation with you, your dentist, doctor, or specialist.​Research shows that the jaw, head and neck work together bio-mechanically and that physiotherapy has a key role.

--Bite sized pieces of information for you to ‘chew over’:--

People who suffer TMD are more likely to have neck pain with several studies reporting dysfunction of the cervical spine in this population group (1-2).

Even positioning the jaw differently through bad posture, clenching or chewing habits change jaw resting position and reduces the neck’s flexibility (3).

Treatment of the cervical spine in TMD has been shown to increase range of movement in the jaw joint (TMJ) (4). Indeed in some cases, physiotherapy can be as effective in obtaining greater mouth opening as botox (a muscle relaxant) (5).

Physiotherapy for both the jaw and the neck joints shows better results in treatment of the neck by itself (6-7).

Have a healthy World Oral Health Day and rest assured that we are well qualified to help you!

Have you ever heard someone say, “I like to run when my achilles lets me”? We do. This statement is a powerful image of the problem for rehabilitation. There are other tendons too; The patella tendon, the rotator cuff tendon and those of the wrist and elbow also come to mind. But for now, let me walk you back a bit.

Fling it!

What is a tendon? It joins muscle to bone. It also stores energy. So, jumping running and for the upper body, batting and return serve all harness that ability to store energy like a wound-up spring.
Why does tendon hurt? Good question. The reasons are not completely understood, yet. Some of what we do know about tendonopathy:

If you are active then we know that there is a failed response to recover. This is important for repetitive loading: too much action and not enough down time to recuperate can be part of the cause.

If you are inactive then your cell metabolism (aka chemistry) may be involved. People who suffer diabetes or weight gain show disturbed tendon metabolism.

We achieve a “different kind of youth” as we accumulate the years, our tendons do change their makeup. But that is OK, because we “recycled teenagers” still have normal tendon tissue somewhere to work with.

The appearance of a tendon on a scan does not predict how much pain a person is in form the tendon. Fear, fatigueable muscles and poor coordination may have a bigger role than any scan.

Brain versus Braun

So what counts in tendon problems and what is the go with rehab? Well four things are important and three you will know:1) Strength 2) Load 3) Kinetic activity (how the whole limb moves) and 4) The Brain. And research shows that Brain is as big a factor as Braun, sorry Arnie!

In composing a rehabilitation plan a physiotherapist will look at the first three tendon related factors but also, we must examine the cortical drive. Cortical drive could be called muscle memory, motor control or brain training.

Physio researchers at LaTrobe University has shed light on this in recent times. In tendon pain the brain is like a learner driver, it makes the muscle contract completely or not at all and it peters out very quickly. The result is that the tendons are loaded in an awkward way that affects its metabolic health. Think of learning to drive and all the bunny hops (or donuts) you did. Imagine what it did to the engine!!

Dr Ebonie Rio with her team demonstrated (1) that static hold (isometric) exercise can be not just train muscle but be pain relieving. This is because it activates the brain to relieve pain (the brain has a drug cabinet called endorphins) and it reshapes that activation pattern of muscle not to be stop-start but flowing, undulating, oscillation. I often say to people their muscles are like an orchestra and this another example. Even better, loading and ramping up to the non-painful limb has neural carry over to your recovering tendon side.

Rehabilitate, Recover, Play

So if you have a tendon problem, physiotherapy is the choice for an expert rehabilitation programme for brain and braun with a scientific approach to recovery. This is achieved by

Progressive loading.

Movement retraining.

Neuroplastic training (the brain part)

Work towards strong, springy actions with stamina.

​It takes time and patience, we teach you to physio yourself and you will get there.